We have been driving back and forth between Red Wing and Rochester for the last several months and it is impossible not to notice how lush this years’ corn and bean crop look.
We need a few weeks of stable weather (not too dry and not too wet) and it should be a bountiful crop.
The Rochester shop will have a soft opening next week, so we are almost ready to harvest as well.
Okay, that wasn’t the smoothest of transitions, but I am too tired to be clever.
The Broadway Avenue awning was installed this week. It is illuminated from within by fluorescent lights to provide 24 hour visibility.
It was delight to work with Schad-Tracy Signs on this project, partly because Mike Schad has been such a tremendous framing customer over the years. It is nice to be able to return the favor.
We first started working with Matt eight years ago when he was a senior in high school. He only needed mats cut because he was building his own frames.
But he wasn’t just building his own frames. He was milling his own frame profiles and staining and waxing the wood. His attention to detail was remarkable and his skill as a carpenter was undeniable.
Matt has since graduated from college, gotten married and has two children. But he still maintains a very complete wood shop. As Matt puts it, “shop time is good time”.
And when it came time to have custom cabinetry built for the new Rochester location, it was an easy decision.
It has taken a long time (too long) to get the new shop to this point.
This point is the point in which we can begin tailoring the space to our design aesthetic.
The goal will be to create a design environment that is comfortable and simple.
It shouldn’t be too much longer.
The floor is finished, which was a bigger project than anticipated. The concrete floor under the original carpeting was very uneven so the entire floor had to be ground down before the tile could be installed.
It is a porcelain tile floor, so it should stand up for a very long time. Because the space is long and narrow, it was hoped that creating a diagonal pattern would create the illusion of the floor being larger than it is.
The new cabinets should arrive within a week and then the Cambria design surface can be ordered.
Construction is like balancing spinning plates.
Is it vain to get excited to see your name in a magazine article?
I hope not.
Anyway, we been blessed with some terrific press this last week and we got excited.
Click on the magazine cover or click here for the complete article.
This is really a lot less about Van Gogh and more about a printing technology that we are experimenting with.
The Red Wing Digital Acrylic Print has an interesting visual effect that provides a sense of depth. It is mostly a light refraction effect, but it is also a visual acuity effect.
Click on the image above and notice the impasto brush strokes and notice how the shadows are consistent. This is very important. If it wasn’t consistent, your mind would tell you something is amiss or artificial.
The light refraction and visual acuity effect is diagrammed below. It isn’t complicated, just think about how things look bigger in a glass of water. Or find a 5th grader to explain it. 🙂
The bottom line is; light gets bent, things look bigger and clarity improves.
Bada-bing. Bada-boom.
This is a side project.
Vincent van Gogh would occasionally use an impasto painting technique, whereby he would use a heavy application of oils on the painting, which gives the painting a sense of depth. The visible brush strokes also contribute because the brush strokes can elevate the drama of the painting.
The Red Wing Digital Acrylic Print is well suited for this type of reproduction. The acrylic layer helps bend the light and provides a sense of depth to the image.
The above image is the second step in creating an Acrylic Print. After the print is created, an optically clear layer is applied to the top of the print. This layer bonds the front surface of the print to the top surface of the acrylic.
There are a lot of reasons to love this video. It’s original and authentic.
It looks like it was filmed in the backyard of a party barbeque.
And that only adds to the charm.
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